By now, we hoped Blackie and her cubs would be settled into hibernation enough that they would not run away when we approached.  They hibernated late because this past summer and fall they had made the second longest journey in search of food ever recorded for a mother with cubs. 

Food was scarce because tent caterpillars defoliated nut and berry bushes over large portions of northern Minnesota and adjacent Ontario.  Their search brought them to our study area where the largest cub acquired his radio-collar.  In late October, they left our Minnesota study area and moved 44 miles north into a remote part of Ontario. 

In late November, we homed in on their radio signal by airplane and saw the family resting at the base of a tree in a swamp rather than hibernating in a den as most other bears were doing.  On a flight in January, we found them in an upland area near the swamp.  This Namakan River area was evidently their home and the place they would hibernate. We knew, then, that they were not part of our study area population and that we needed to remove the radio-collar from the growing yearling.  We also wanted to ear-tag the family so we can recognize the cubs if they ever make the long trip to our study area after they grow up.  It would tell us a little more about cubs remembering places their mothers show them.  It was doubly important to catch the family in a sleepy mid-winter state in this case because we could see from the air that their home territory was too rocky to afford underground dens.   They would likely be sleeping on the ground where they could easily get up and move away if we disturbed them.  In preparation for the trip, Canadian Officials Maria DeAlmeida and Howard Smith of the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources cleared away red tape and asked local officials to help. 

Five experienced, strong, friendly officials from the Ministry of Natural Resources met us at 9:30 this morning with four snowmobiles loaded and ready to go.  Led by Conservation Officer Gary Parker, we convoyed 30 miles down the Flanders road west of Atikokan in frequent radio communication with the logging trucks that no one wanted to meet on a curve.  Finally, near Little Eva Lake, we unloaded the snowmobiles and loaded our gear.  We snowmobiled down a narrow trail to the lake and then two fast miles across the ice to the bay closest to our aerial location. 

The day was bright overcast, mild, and calm.   We turned on the telemetry receiver and listened from the frozen lake for the radio signal.  The directional antenna told us the bears were still where we had found them from the airplane, only a few hundred yards inland.  We discussed the operation and cut a 20-foot sapling to use with the syringe and tranquilizer.  Once in the woods, we talked only in whispers, watching for any sign of bears and listening for the strongest signal direction. 

Coming over a rock outcrop, we saw a dark patch ahead.  Lying next to the upturned roots of a fallen tree, the family was lying on a mat of balsam fir boughs they had bitten from the trees around them.  Packed snow and fresh sign showed that they had been active and were not in deep hibernation.  The family had achieved a good weight in the fall and did not need to slow their metabolism as much as some bears to make it through the winter.  Blackie had weighed close to 400 pounds and could afford to remain alert and reactive to danger. 

Rogers was dressed in soft clothing that did not rustle going through vegetation.  He filled the syringe and put it on the end of the sapling.  He didn't move directly toward the bear, zig-zagging to avoid a threatening approach.  Blackie watched intently. Rogers was afraid she would get up and move away.  The radio-collared male yearling sat up behind her and looked over Blackie's back.  Rogers stopped, moved a step closer, and extended the syringe and let the mother sniff it.  She turned her attention back to Rogers, and he gently pushed the needle into her shoulder and withdrew it.  She didn't flinch.  Rogers lay down, and Blackie seemed to relax. 

Twenty minutes later, the tranquilizer took effect and she lay her head down.  She had not expressed any hint of danger.  The yearling looked over her back again, undisturbed.  Rogers stood to tranquilize him, and he took a step to leave.  Rogers quickly inserted the needle.  Three feet from the mother, the yearling stopped, apparently not wanting to leave the calm mother.  Rogers had not come closer, so the danger seemed minimal.  Ten minutes later, the yearling lay down tranquilized.

Rogers tranqulized the two remaining yearlings huddled near their mother and then moved closer to remove the radio-collar and begin measuring and weighing.  He held up the radio-collar where the group could see it and everyone gave a thumbs up.  The primary objective was accomplished.  The group moved closer, bringing the equipment.  They were experienced in den operations from years of working with veteran Ontario bear researcher Marty Obbard. 

Everyone fell to work, taking measurements, weighing the bears, and eartagging them.  The female yearling was so lightly tranquilized that she wanted to leave.  Biologist Brian Jackson got the job of holding the squirming 55-pounder.  He had purposely worn thick gloves in case he got that job.  

At this time of year, the yearlings are shedding their baby teeth, and the new canine teeth are barely showing above the gums.  He let her gnaw on his gloves with no discomfort.  This yearling had the rich golden muzzle of her mother and a beautiful white blaze on her chest.  She will be recognizable even if she somehow loses her eartag. 

Finally, technician Richard Baycroft, coop student Jeremy Thevierge, and the others arranged the bears comfortably on their mat of boughs and covered them with a few extra boughs for security.  Senior technician Tom Nash and Brian put the lively yearling under the boughs next to her mother and let her go.  She snuggled next to mom and settled down.  We apologized to the bears for the disturbance, knowing that they had already contributed information that could help their kind in the future. 

They contributed important knowledge about movements between Canada and the US that can help prevent overharvest of Minnesota bears in years of scarce food.   We looked forward to possible future visits from the grown cubs that would show us a little more about long-term memories of distant feeding locations.  We wondered if Brian's little female would someday produce cubs as beautiful as herself and whether she would visit our Minnesota study area with them. 

Blackie weighed 305 pounds, making her perhaps the heaviest female ever weighed in the Atikokan area.   We wouldn't be radio-tracking this family further unless future returns to the Minnesota study area prompt new questions.  One thing that surprised us about Blackie the first time we saw her was that she has the wide head and large body of an older female.  On this trip, we saw that her teeth are those of a bear in her teens or older. 

Her Namakan River home is a remote area that receives little hunting pressure.  This has helped her to live far beyond the three and a half years at which the average female is shot in heavily hunted populations.  When Blackie is eventually shot, which is the fate of nearly every adult in hunted populations, she will provide a little more information on mortality rates relative to hunting pressure. 

We removed a rudimentary tooth to determine her exact age.  Someday, if her eartags are returned to us from a hunter-check station, we will learn a little more about how long bears survive in lightly hunted areas.  The oldest such bear in our studies to date was killed four months short of her thirtieth birthday. 

Another unusual thing about this experience was that these were the only bears in our current study that we needed to tranquilize. Our usual method of placing or removing radio-collars is to gain the bears' confidence to the extent that they let us do it. 

As we left, we wondered if food conditions this year would force another long journey for these bears and if they would choose to visit our Minnesota study area again.